The Bottom Line

PROS

Nice 5.5 inch screen

Good performance

4G LTE

microSD and dual-SIM

CONS

GPS unreliable

Battery life is OK, but could be better

7.9

An interesting 5.5 inch device, with a nice 64-bit processor and a good GPU. The full HD resolution works well for this display size and having 2GB of RAM is good. The GPS is unreliable, which could be a deal breaker for some.

64-bit processors are becoming increasingly mainstream on Android devices, and the Aurora E04 an example of how these new SoCs will be utilized by Asian OEMs. The Ecoo Aurora E04 is a 5.5 inch device with an octa-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 based processor. It costs just $190, which is quite surprising when you consider the screen size and the mid-range specs.

Specs

In short, the Ecoo Aurora E04 is 64-bit 4G LTE smartphone with a full HD display, 2GB of RAM and a built-in fingerprint reader. Here are the full specs:

Display

5.5 inch, IPS, 1920 x 1080 pixels

Processor

MediaTek MT6752 1.7GHz octa-core Cortex-53, 64-bit

GPU

ARM Mali-T760

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB

Camera

16 MP rear camera, 8 MP front camera

Battery

3000 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM; 3G: 900/2100 MHz; 4G LTE: 800/1800/2100/2600 MHz

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play. Android 5.0 coming soon.

Dimensions

156.7 x 77.5 x 9.3 mm, 160g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM (micro SIM and normal SIM）

Design

Moving on to the design and build, the phone is quite light at just 160g and surprising easy to hold considering its 5.5 inch display. I have always felt most comfortable using a phone with a 5.0 inch display, and the E04 Aurora is certainly larger than the average 5 inch device. At 156.7 mm tall, it is around 1.0 to 1.5 cm longer than a 5 inch device, however at 77.5 mm wide, it is only a few millimeters wider your average 5 incher. This means that, for me at least, it fits comfortably in my hand, and I don’t feel that I am performing any more finger gymnastics than I would with a smaller phone.

My test unit is a white model, and so the coloring is chrome and white. There is also a black model available. Around the phone is a chrome colored band, which is made of plastic. The back cover uses a textured plastic which aids the grip (slightly). According to the specs, the bezels are just 2.5 mm which means that the phone has a screen to body ratio of 78%.

To supplement the narrow bezels, the Ecoo Aurora uses 2.5D glass. Sometimes these terms can be used without much justification, however it is true that the glass on front does curve at the edges and is rounded in the corners. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is achieved more with a kind of factory fitted glass screen protector than by the use of expensive glass tech. The reason I say it is because there is a little gap around the ear-piece that is reminiscent of the way a screen protector is overlaid on a display. Of course, I could be wrong.

As for the rest of the front, there is the full HD 5.5 inch display, the front facing camera, a set of sensors, and the capacitive keys. The home button is a physical button and contains a built-in fingerprint reader.

Down the right-hand side are the power button and the volume rocker. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand, and I prefer the position used by Ecoo with the power button above the volume rocker, than vice versa.

On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro USB port. On the bottom edge are the speaker grills and the microphone. Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent ECOO logo, the dual LED flash and the camera lens.

Display

The 5.5 inch display on the Aurora E04 is very good, especially considering the price point of this device. It is an IPS display with a full HD resolution, i.e. 1920 x 1080. That works out to 400 dpi.

Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. I also found the display to be quite bright, in a good sense. Leaving the brightness on Auto worked well, but whenever I did force the display to maximum brightness it was too bright for indoor use. This is of course a good thing as it meant that the display is easier to read when outdoors.

Performance

At the heart of the Aurora E04 is the MediaTek MT6752. It has a octa-core Cortex-A53 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU. This is the first time I have tested a phone with this combination of CPU and GPU, and overall I have been very impressed. A quad-core or octa-core Cortex-A53 processor coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU will likely become a popular offering from Asian OEMs during 2015.

The Cortex-A53 is ARM’s super power efficient variant from its first generation of 64-bit processors. The MT6752 uses eight Cortex-A53 cores all clocked at 1.7GHz. According to Ecoo the MT6752 is twice as fast as as MediaTek’s quad-core Cortex-A7 based processors, but with 30 percent less battery consumption.

My experience of using the Aurora E04 is that the processor package is fast. The UI is smooth and rapid, and in fact the E04 has one of the fastest UI that I have recently seen on a Chinese OEM phone. The Aurora E04 handled everything I asked of it including gaming and video.

In terms of benchmarks, the Aurora E04 managed to chalk up 39.1 frames per second on Epic Citadel in Ultra High Quality mode and 54.9 in High Quality mode. According to GameBench, the Aurora E04 can run Riptide GP at over 50 fps, while Shadow Fight 2 runs at 51 fps. These are all excellent scores and reflect my experience with the device.

Hardware

The phone comes with a 3000 mAh battery, which is about what I would expected for a phone of this size and price. My testing revealed some interesting numbers. Before I started testing the phone I left it to one side while I worked on some other videos. When the battery went flat I would charge it again and so on. When I finally got around to testing this unit I just started using it as it was. The final battery numbers for that first period of real usage was 3 days and 18 hours, with 3 hours of screen time. Once my testing was fully underway I was getting around 1 day and 5 hours, with 2.5 hours of screen time.

I also ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for about 3 hours. GameBench shows that Tower Madness will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device on one charge.

The phone has two speaker grills on its bottom edge, however there is only one speaker. Covering the right grill muffles the sound as you would expect, however the left grill appears only to be for ascetics.

The Aurora E04 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; dual-band 3G, on 900 and 2100MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage, but that is about it.

Unfortunately the GPS performance isn’t very reliable. The device is able to get a lock outdoors, however indoors a lock can’t be achieved. But the main problem seems to be that the lock either isn’t stable or it isn’t very accurate. According to GPS Test the precision is over 20 feet (or 6 meters). This leaves a big enough margin for error that navigation software like Google Maps or Nokia Here don’t always know which road you are on.

The Aurora E04 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is good for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 32GB. Unfortunately the internal storage is divided into two partitions called Internal Storage and Phone Storage. The first is for apps and the second for your personal data. The good news is that the first partition is almost 6GB which should be sufficient to install quite a few apps. The other bit of good news is that apps can be moved from the Internal Storage to the Phone Storage from with Settings->Apps.

Camera

This phone has a 16MP rear facing camera and a 8MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The Aurora E04 runs stock Android 4.4.4. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. Interestingly, the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

The fingerprint scanner is incorporated into the home button and the software allows you to set the screen to unlock only with your fingerprint. Overall the scanner and the unlock mechanism worked well. The number of misreads was quite low and I kept the feature activated for a while. I only deactivated it, not because the scanner wasn’t capable enough, but because having to swipe my finger over the scanner to unlock the screen was becoming a bit monotonous.

As for upgrades, Ecoo has promised to release an over-the-air update to upgrade the phone to Android 5.0 lollipop. There is no actual official release date, however it is expected soon.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the Aurora E04 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a full HD display and a octa-core 64-bit CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the promise of Android 5.0 Lollipop is quite enticing. You can pick up an Ecoo Aurora E04 for around $190, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.

If there is one thing that generates the most complaints from smartphone users it is battery life. Many devices on the market today, sadly even flagship devices, just don’t offer the battery life needed. Smartphones have a bewildering array of features and us poor users are prone to using them! When combined with the push to make devices thinner (if not smaller) then it is the poor old battery that seems to take a back seat.

If you are looking for a phone with a big battery then maybe the Elephone P5000 is the phone just for you.

Specs

In short, the Elephone P5000 is powered by an octa-core Cortex-A7 based processor, has a 5 inch, full HD display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” full HD IPS 1920 x 1080 pixels

Processor

MediaTek MT6592 Octa core Cortex-A7 at 1.7GHz

GPU

ARM Mali-450 MP4

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

16 MP rear camera, 8 MP front camera

Battery

5350 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC

Networks

GSM, 3G: 900/1900/2100 MHz

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play.

Dimensions

146 x 73.6 x 9.3 mm, 206g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM

Design

Because of the large battery, the P5000 is thicker than many of today’s devices, however it isn’t overly thick. The specs say the phone is 9.3mm thick, but my measurements set it closer to over 10mm. Although over 10mm may sound thick, it is still thinner than popular phones like the Moto G and about the same thickness as a Nexus 6. But of course, with a 5000+ mAh battery.

Like many of Elephone’s recent devices, the device uses lots of dark colors in combination with rounded edges and silver colored trim. There is a silver colored band around the edge of the phone, and silver can be seen on the home button, on the logo, as well as around the camera lens.

On the front is the 5 inch , full HD display, the front facing camera, and a set of capacitive keys which flank the home button. The capacitive keys light up when pressed. The home button also houses the built-in fingerprint reader.

Down the right-hand side are the volume rocker and the power button. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand. On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and the micro USB port. On the bottom edge are the speaker grills. Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo, the flash and the camera lens.

In terms of build quality, the phone feels solid and robust enough, however the power button on my test unit is slightly inset, giving it a slightly spongy feel when pressed. At first I feared that the button was actually broken, however it did function as expected. Also the home button seems to not always detect that it has been pressed. I can’t tell if this is software or hardware, but it was a little annoying at times.

Display

The 5 inch display on the P5000 is good. It is an IPS display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080. That works out to 440 dpi. The color reproduction is faithful, however when placed next to a phone with a better screen I noticed that the whites are a little “dirty” and lacking in punch. However it isn’t something that I noticed while using the phone, only when doing a direct screen comparison. It is likely just be the color temperature of the display.

Performance

At the heart of the P5000 is the MediaTek MT6592. It has an octa-core Cortex-A7 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-450MP GPU. The Mali-450 is getting quite old now and only provides OpenGL ES 2.0, and not 3.0. However it still performs reasonably well for 3D gaming.

My experience with the P5000 was pleasant. The user interface responds well and I didn’t notice any lags or stutters. Swiping and general navigation was always smooth and fast. For everyday usage like browsing the web, reading email, checking my calendar etc, I have no complaints at all. And while the Mali-450MP is certainly an older GPU, it was able to handle games like Riptide GP2 without any problems.

As for the benchmarks, the P5000 managed to chalk up 54.3 frames per second on Epic Citadel in High Quality mode, and scored an unverified 31749 on AnTuTu.

One other thing worth mentioning about the CPU/GPU package is that when pushed hard the device becomes quite warm. I am used to a little warmth on the back of a phone after playing 3D games, however in this particular case the front of the phone around the ear piece also heats up. Someone called me while I was playing some games on the device. When I placed it to my ear it was quite uncomfortable. Thankfully the heat dissipates quite quickly, but it is something to be aware of.

Hardware

The star attraction of the P5000 is of course its 5350 mAh battery. That is a big battery for a phone! To put it into perspective, the Nexus 7 (2013) tablet has a 3950 mAh battery, the Nexus 6 has a 3220 mAH battery, the Nexus 5 has a 2300 mAh battery, and the Moto G (2nd gen) has a 2070 mAh battery. In other words, the battery in the P5000 is bigger than the battery in some 7 inch tablets, and at least twice the size of the battery in many popular 5 inch phones.

I charged the phone overnight in Friday and started using it over the weekend. The battery lasted until late on Monday morning. That was a total of 2 days and 6 hours, with a on screen time of 5.25 hours. Wi-Fi and 3G were on all the time, as was sync (I was receiving all my emails etc). There is also about 90 minutes of game playing in the mix.

I ran some individual tests which basically confirmed my weekend testing. According to GameBench you can play 2D games for around 6 hours on one charge, while intensive 3D games will work for around 4 hours. Alternatively you can get about 5 hours of constant YouTube streaming over Wi-Fi.

The phone has two speaker grills on its bottom edge, however they don’t seem to have any actual relationship to the internal speaker! Covering both grills only muffles the sound slightly and the speaker appears to be buried in the phone’s innards somewhere. Taking off the battery cover doesn’t reveal any obvious speaker bits. Pure audiophiles will likely be concerned about sound fidelity, however the advantage of this setup is that the phone sounds the same regardless of how the device is positioned: on its back, on its front, with the grills covered, and so on.

The P5000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; and tri-band 3G, on 900, 1900 and 2100MHz. The 3G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage but that is about it.

The GPS performance is excellent. The device is able to get a lock easily outdoors and can even get a lock indoors. I tested the P5000 with Nokia Here maps and I was able to use the turn-by-turn navigation without any problems.

The P5000 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is to be expected for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot, which can accept cards up to 64GB. Thankfully, unlike other MediaTek based devices, the internal storage isn’t divided up, you get access to the whole lot, which is around 13GB.

Camera

This phone has a 16MP rear facing camera and a 8MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The sensor struggles a bit in low-light situations, but for outdoor shots I was quite impressed. The inclusion of an 8MP front facing camera is good news for those who like selfies, however I did find the front camera tends to over expose pictures.

The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The P5000 runs stock Android 4.4.2. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. I think the device is rooted by default as it comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed. The reason I say “I think” is that the phone received an Over-The-Air (OTA) update within the first day of me getting it, and after the update SuperSU complains that the “su” binaries are no longer installed. My guess is that the OTA removed them and I didn’t check the phone’s root status before the OTA arrived.

The UI is basically what you would expect from stock Android. The launcher has been lightly skinned by Elephone and there are a few additional sections in the settings for Gesture Recognition and for the Finger Scanner [sic]. But those are about the only differences between the supplied version of Android and pure stock Android.

The fingerprint scanner is incorporated into the home button and the software allows you to set the screen to unlock only with your fingerprint. Overall the scanner and the unlock mechanism worked well. The number of misreads was relatively low and I kept the feature activated for a while. I only removed it, not because the scanner wasn’t up to the job, but because having to swipe my finger over the scanner to unlock the screen was becoming a bit tedious.

Comparison with THL 5000

The Elephone P5000 isn’t the first phone with an extra large battery. Another good example is the THL 5000. I used the THL 5000 as my daily driver for around 6 months, so I have a lot of experience with the device. Both cost around the same price and both share a number of common features: octa-core Cortex-A7 processor, Mali-450MP GPU, 2GB RAM, and 16GB storage.

The differences come down to this: the THL 5000 supports 3G on 850/2100MHz, compared to 900/1900/2100MHz on the P5000; the THL 5000 has a 13MP/5MP camera combo, compared to the 16MP/8MP of the P5000. The THL 5000 has Corning Gorilla Glass, but the P5000 has a fingerprint scanner. After that I guess it comes down to personal preference with regards to the styling, and the brand.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the P5000 is a 3G enabled smartphone, with a full HD display and an octa-core 32-bit CPU. The battery is a big plus point, and companies like Elephone are certainly pushing the standard feature list upwards. For once, the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner is more than just a gimmick, as it actually works. The over-heating issue might be a problem for some, but if you are aware of it then it can be easily managed.

64-bit processors are on the verge of becoming mainstream on Android devices, and the P6000 is one of the first smartphones from an Asian OEM that uses such a processor. The Elephone P6000 is a 5 inch device with a quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A53 based processor. If you haven’t heard of Elephone, that is because it isn’t that well known in the west (yet). But one thing is for sure, it is a rapidly growing company and the P6000 is a good example of what it can manufacture.

Specs

In short, the Elephone P6000 is powered by a quad-core Cortex-A53 based processor, has a 5 inch, 720p display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” 720p HD IPS 720 x 1280 pixels

Processor

1.5 GHz, quad-core MediaTek MTK6732, 64-bit, Cortex-A53

GPU

ARM MALI-T760

RAM

2GB

Storage

16GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

13 Megapixel Rear Camera, 2MP Front Camera

Battery

2700 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM, 3G, 4G LTE

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play. Android 5.0 coming soon.

Dimensions

144.5 x 71.6 x 8.9 mm, 165g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM: 2xMicro SIM

Design

Moving on to the design and build, the first thing that struck me about this device was how solid it felt. The weight, the case, and the construction make the device feel sturdy. This is also helped by the thickness. At 8.9m it isn’t ultra-thin (which in my book makes some devices feel too delicate) but it isn’t overly thick either.

In terms of design language, we are talking black and grey with rounded edges. Most of the phone’s exterior is made up of the the back battery cover. There are no separate edges per se, but rather a deep removable casing that includes the edges. Even the volume rocker is part of the back cover.

Interestingly, Elephone has tried to make this a little more elegant by sloping the cover edges downwards at the corners. This gives the side of the phone a slight curved look as the cover slides downwards and the screen starts to take over.

On the front is the 5 inch , 720p display, the front facing camera, and a set of blue capacitive keys on the bottom. The home key glows when used, and also flashes when you have a notification. However, the back and menu keys don’t have a back light.

Down the right-hand side are the volume rocker and the power button. Both are easily accessible when the phone is held in your left hand, however they might be a little too close together. Sometimes I found myself turning the phone off by mistake when I wanted to adjust the volume.

On the top you will find the 3.5mm headphone jack, while on the bottom edge is the micro-USB port. Elephone has placed the port off to one side rather than in the middle. It looks different, but at the end of the day makes no difference – for better or for worse.

Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo, the speaker grill, the flash and the camera lens.

Display

The 5 inch display on the P6000 is very good considering, the price point of this device. It is an IPS display with a resolution of 1280 by 720. That works out to 293 dpi.

Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. Some people like full HD displays for 5 inch devices, however for a budget device, 720p is more than adequate.

Performance

At the heart of the P6000 is the MediaTek MT6732. It has a quad-core Cortex-A53 based processor which is coupled with a Mali-T760 GPU. This is the first time I have tested a phone with this combination of CPU and GPU, and overall I have been very impressed. During 2015 this kind of CPU/GPU combination will become the norm for low- and mid-range phones.

The Cortex-A53 is ARM’s super power efficient variant from its first generation of 64-bit processors. The MT6732 uses four Cortex-A53 cores all clocked at 1.5GHz. According to Elephone the MT6732 is 20 percent faster than MediaTek’s octa-core Cortex-A7 based processors, but with 30 percent less battery consumption.

My experience of using the P6000 is that the processor package is fast. The UI is smooth and rapid, in fact it offers the fastest UI that I have personally seen on a Chinese OEM phone. The P6000 handled everything I asked of it including gaming and video.

In terms of benchmarks, the P6000 managed to chalk up 45.5 frames per second on Epic Citadel in Ultra High Quality mode. According to GameBench, the P6000 can run Riptide GP at 54 fps, while Shadow Fight 2 runs at 52 fps. These are all excellent scores and reflect my experience with the device.

Hardware

The phone comes with a 2700 mAh battery, which is slightly less than I expected. I guess the rationale is that the 64-bit Cortex-A53 is more power efficient than the 32-bit Cortex-A7. Once you factor in a 720p display, rather than full HD, then the battery should be OK.

What my testing showed is that the battery is OK, but that is all. The battery will last all day (from morning to evening) but it will be running out of juice when you go to bed. On average I was getting around 14 to 15 hours of battery life with around 3.5 hours of screen on time.

I also ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for at least 3.5 hours. GameBench shows that Riptide GP will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 4.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device.

The phone has a single speaker on the back of the device. It certainly is loud but don’t expect too much from it. One small irritation is that the speaker is completely flush with the back cover, this means the sound becomes muffled quite easily when placed on a flat surface.

The P6000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; dual-band 3G, on 900 and 2100MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world, especially in Europe and Asia. In the USA you will get 2G coverage but that is about it.

The GPS performance is excellent. The device is able to get a lock easily outdoors and can even get a lock indoors. I tested the P6000 with Nokia Here maps and I was able to use the turn-by-turn navigation without any problems.

The P6000 comes with 2GB of RAM, which is excellent for a phone in this price range. In terms of internal storage, the device comes with 16GB of flash and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB. Thankfully, unlike other MediaTek based devices, the internal storage isn’t divided up, you get access to the whole lot, which is around 12GB – once you leave space for Android etc.

Camera

This phone has a 13MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera. The pictures are crisp and the color reproduction is good. The sensor struggles a bit in low-light situations, but for outdoor shots I was quite impressed.

The included camera app, which looks to be the standard AOSP app, offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene type, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall, the app is fairly comprehensive but it doesn’t have any advanced modes or filters. You can also install and use third-party apps including Google’s camera app.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The P6000 runs stock Android 4.4.4. You get access to Google Play and all of Google’s services like YouTube, Gmail and Maps. Interestingly the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

However, what is more interesting is that Elephone has promised to release an over-the-air update to upgrade the phone to Android 5.0 lollipop. There is no actual official release date, however it is expected soon.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the P6000 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a 720p HD display and a quad-core 64-bit CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the promise of Android 5.0 Lollipop is quite enticing. You can pick up an Elephone P6000 for around $160, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.

There was a time, not all that long ago, that in order to own a powerful smartphone you would either need to commit to a two-year contract, or you would be expected to pay as much as $500 – $700. Thankfully, this has changed considerably in the last year or so. There are now several manufacturers that offer handsets that bring quality specs and yet are priced low enough you don’t need to take out a second mortgage or sign your life away to a carrier. In this article, we take a look at some of the best low-cost Android phones on the market.

Now, obviously the idea of “low-cost” is somewhat subjective. For some folks it is anything under $350, for others it might mean devices that are under $200. With this in mind, we’ll bring you a total of six devices: three that are under $200, and three that are under $350 — this way everyone wins. We’ll also be sure to list a few honorable mentions and encourage our readers to let us know if there’s a phone you think deserves a mention for sporting reasonably solid specs at a rock bottom price.

As for how we’ll ‘rank’ the phone? Basically we are looking at a number of factors though price/value ratio is probably among one of the highest factors here. It is also worth mentioning that all devices on this list will be full unlocked, and off contract. For those US readers looking for even cheaper phones and don’t mind going with a locked-down handset through a prepaid carrier, you’ll want to check out our Cricket,AT&T,Boost, T-Mobile and Verizon prepaid lists.

Editors note – we will be updating this list as more devices hit the market. This article reflects things from a US/EU centric perspective, though many of these devices and pricing will apply to other international markets as well.

Best Android phones under $200

#1 – Motorola Moto G (2nd gen)

The follow-up to the original Moto G holds a lot in common with its predecessor, including its 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU and 1GB of RAM. This time around, however, the display size has jumped up to 5-inches and the camera package has also improved.

The Moto G runs on near-stock Android 4.4, and should get Android 5.0 Lollipop sometime before the year is up. Motorola’s Moto G series proves that low-price doesn’t have to mean low quality, something we’re also seeing with the even cheaper Moto E.

Specs

5-inch LCD display with 1280 x 720 resolution

1.2GHz Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 400 CPU

1GB of RAM

3G/GSM

8GB and 16GB storage options, microSD expansion

8MP rear cam, 2MP front cam

2070 mAh battery

141.5 x 70.7 x 11 mm, 149g

Removable colored backs

Android 4.4 KitKat (Lollipop update coming down the pipeline)

Read more

#2 – Motorola Moto E

Yet another phone from Motorola that proves you don’t need to pay top dollar to still get a solid Android experience. The Moto E is far from a power house with its dual-core Snapdragon 200 CPU and a smaller qHD 4.3-inch display, but the phone actually performs rather well, in large part thanks to its clean stock-like Android installation.

The Moto E actually has a few small advantages over the first-gen version of its bigger brother, such as its microSD expansion slot and the inclusion of a front-facing speaker, but the second gen Moto G takes these advantages away. Without a front cam and with slightly weaker specs, the Moto G (2nd gen) is the better deal but if you absolutely are looking for the cheapest phone around, the Moto E provides a $50 savings over the Moto G and yet is still without a doubt one of the best handsets you’ll find for under $250.

Specs

4.3-inch LCD display with 540×960 (qHD) resolution

1.2GHz Qualcomm dual-core Snapdragon 200 CPU

1GB of RAM

3G/GSM

4GB storage with microSD

5MP rear cam

1980 mAh battery

142g weight, 124.38 x 64.8 x 12.3mm

Removable colored backs

Android 4.4 KitKat

Read more

#3 – BLU Vivo Air

The Vivo Air is one of the latest handsets from Blu, first announced at CES 2015. There’s a lot to like about the Blu Vivo Air: It’s thin, extremely light and has a 4.8-inch screen that should work well for all but the most hardcore Android users. The Vivo Air is meant to be a thin, compact device that doesn’t break the bank. It has an octa-core processor, a clear 8MP rear-facing camera, and a 2100mAh battery. While the battery isn’t great, it should still make it through a full day with moderate usage.

Best Android phones under $350

#1 – LG Google Nexus 5

At $349 for the 16GB model, the Nexus 5 is more mid-ranged price than “entry-level”, though it’s still extremely aggressively priced when pitted against other devices with its spec sheet. The LG Nexus 5 is powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU and has 2GB of RAM. The Nexus 5 ships with Android 4.4 KitKat right out of the box and should be making the move to Android 5.0 Lollipop in the near future.

If you want a stock Android experience, the way Google intended it, then there’s no better choice than the Nexus family, and while the Nexus 6 is more powerful, the Nexus 5 is still an extremely capable handset with an excellent price/value ratio. Of course it is important to note that the LG Nexus 5 is being phased out and so finding stock in the Google Play store is largely a hit-and-miss experience.

Specs

4.96-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution

2.3GHz Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU

2GB of RAM

GSM/3G/LTE

NFC, A-GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, Wireless charging

16GB and 32GB storage options

8MP rear cam with OIS, 1.3MP front

2300 mAh battery

130g, 137.84 x 69.7 x 8.59mm

Android 4.4 KitKat (Lollipop coming soon!)

Read more

#2 – OnePlus One

While still not the easiest to get a hold of, it’s much easier to get an invite for the OnePlus One than it was just a few months ago. Additionally, OnePlus is slowly introducing “pre-order” windows for the device, and hopefully it is only a matter of time before it is widely available without any hoop jumping required. While it’s no longer a “brand new” device, it’s low pricing (starting at $300) still makes it an absolute winner and recent software updates have eliminated many of the complaint points that some OnePlus One users had to deal with early on.

As for the hardware? The OPO is powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 with 3GB RAM. There’s also storage options of both 16 or 64GB, a 13MP camera, a 3100 mAh battery and Cyanogenmod 11S (based on Android 4.4). The OnePlus One is a solid device, spec wise, and the addition of out-of-the-box Cyanogenmod makes it stand out. At the same time, the OPO is also a desirable device for those that prefer a stock-like Android experience.

#3 – Moto X (1st Gen.)

Ah, the memories. Motorola aimed to show us that they could make an inexpensive phone with midrange specifications that performed as well as the competition. They managed to succeed with the Moto X. Many people grew very fond of this device thanks to it’s smaller-than-usual 4.7-inch screen, stock Android software, and that weird dimple on the back that fits your index finger just right. All of these features coupled with Motorola’s own software enhancements (Active Display, Touchless Control, Moto Assist), made for one heck of a great phone.

It wasn’t the best phone on the market, spec-wise. But it didn’t need to be. It didn’t have tons of extra software features that nobody needs, nor did it have a nice 1080p display. The Moto X will continue to be one of our favorite Android phones of all time.

Honorable Mentions

While these are some of the best budget handsets, the market for affordable devices continues to grow and we are seeing a number of excellent choices, here’s just a few honorable mentions that are worth your consideration:

Moto G (1st gen): It’s still pretty easy to find the original Moto G, and often times you can get it at some very steep discounts. For those willing to go the prepaid route, the phone is found for a little under $100 through the likes of Verizon and. Boost Typically though, it’s going price is now around the $150 mark unlocked.

Asus Zenfone 5: Powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Z2560, the Zenfone 5 packs pretty solid specs, including a 720p display. While it never officially launched in the US market, there are plenty of importers on Amazon and elsewhere that sell the device for as little as $170. While not as impressive as the 2nd-gen Moto G, the specs are still very good and the phone will certainly stand out from the crowd.

Sony Xperia M:There’s something to be said for Sony’s aesthetics, and if you are looking for a premium looking phone without paying premium dollar — the Xperia M might just fit the bill. The phone can be found for as little as $150 and is powered by a dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus with 1GB RAM and 4GB storage with microSD.

Sony Xperia M2: Again seeing Sony’s aesthetics, though this time with improved hardware including a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 with 1GB RAM, 8GB storage and microSD.

We will be adding plenty more to the honorable mention section in the days to come, so please be patient. Also feel free to add suggestions for the list if you so please! What do you think are the best ‘cheap’ phones available for purchase outright (prepaid or unlocked)? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Fingerprints scanners are becoming a popular addition to smartphones, but generally they are only found on flagship models, well not any more! The Elephone P3000 is a quad-core, 5 inch device with a built-in fingerprint reader. If you haven’t heard of Elephone, it is a rapidly growing Asian OEM based in Hong Kong.

Specs

In short, the Elephone P3000 is powered by a quad-core Cortex-A7 based processor, has a 5 inch, 720p display, and runs Android 4.4 KitKat. Here are the full specs:

Display

5” 720p HD IPS 720 x 1280 pixels

Processor

1.3 GHz, quad-core MediaTek MT6582, Cortex-A7

RAM

1GB

Storage

8GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

13 Megapixel Rear Camera, 5MP Front Camera

Battery

3150 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM, 3G, 4G LTE

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions

145 x 87.8 x 8.99 mm, 146g

SIM slots

Dual-SIM: 1x SIM, 1xMicro SIM

Design

The first thing that struck me about this device was its weight. It only weighs 149 grams, which is quite light. When I first picked it up, I actually had to check if it had a battery in it or not. In terms of design language, the theme here is a bold black and silver. The body is black plastic all the way around, peppered with silver for the buttons and the logos. The only other color is the red edge around the section for the camera, flash, and fingerprint reader.

On the front is the 5 inch, 720p display with a set of silver capacitive keys towards the bottom, and a silver earpiece towards the top. There is also the front facing camera and a 4G logo. I have mixed feelings about the prominence of the 4G logo, I guess it is there for those who want to brag about having a phone with 4G LTE connectivity. Honestly, I think the logo should have been placed on the back of the phone, or discarded altogether.

Down the right-hand side is the power button, while on the left is the volume rocker. Both are easily accessible when held in your left hand. On the top you will find the micro-USB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Flipping the phone over, you will see the prominent Elephone logo and a slightly protruding circle for the camera, flash and fingerprint reader. The back cover is made of a matte plastic, almost rubber type material, that does a very good job of repelling fingerprints.

Although the phone is light, it is quite thick. According to my measurement the phone is over 10mm thick. Elephone claim it is just 8.9mm. Either way, it isn’t overly thick, however it does give the phone a slightly dated look.

Display

The 5 inch display on the P3000 is quite good considering the price point of this device. The IPS display comes from JDI and has a resolution of 1280 by 720. That works out to 293 dpi. Overall the color reproduction is good and the definition is great, as are the viewing angles. Some people like full HD displays for 5 inch devices, however I think that for a budget device, 720p is more than adequate.

Performance

At the heart of the P3000 is the MediaTek MTK6582. It has a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor which is coupled with a Mali-400 MP4. These are common specs for low- and mid-range devices coming out of China. The A7 is one of ARM’s most power efficient core designs, however it won’t break any performance records. The same can be said for the Mali-400 GPU.

My experience of using P3000 is that the processor package is more than capable of running the UI without any lag or delays, also everything but the most intense 3D gaming works without any problems. The same can be said for watching locally stored video or video streamed from YouTube.

In terms of benchmarks, the P3000 scored 17,782 on AnTuTu and managed to chalk up 48.4 frames per second on Epic Citadel. According to GameBench, the P3000 can run Riptide GP at 49 fps.

Hardware

The phone comes with a 3150 mAh battery, which is very impressive for a device with only a quad-core A7 processor and a 720p display. My testing confirms that the battery life is good. I ran my customary set of tests. On one charge you will be able to play intensive 3D games for at least 3 hours. GameBench shows that Riptide GP will run for almost 5 hours. For those into multimedia, you can get about 5.5 hours of YouTube streaming from this device, or around 8 hours of watching locally stored video.

The P3000 is a dual SIM phone that offers quad-band GSM, which means 2G will work just about anywhere in the world; quad-band 3G, on 850/900/1900 and 2100 MHz; and quad-band 4G LTE on 800/1800/2100 and 2600MHz. The 3G and 4G will work in lots of countries around the world especially in Europe and Asia. The GPS performance of the P3000 is very middle-of-the-road. It can’t get a signal indoors, but outside it seems to work well enough.

The device comes with 8GB of on-board storage and has a micro-SD card slot which can accept cards up to 64GB. The internal storage on the P3000 is divided in two. The first part is called INTERNAL STORAGE and is 2GB in size. The second part is called PHONE STORAGE and is 4GB. Apps are installed into the 2GB portion and the rest is used for media. If you install a big game like Modern Combat, then the app itself is installed on the 2GB partition but all the data, which is well over 1GB, is installed onto the bigger partition. What this means is that the 2GB will become a limiting factor if you install lots of apps, but it shouldn’t stop you from installing big apps.

Fingerprint Reader

One of the key selling points of this phone is the inclusion of a fingerprint reader. The reader is located on the back of the device below the camera lens. The idea is that you can swipe your finger across the sensor using just one hand.

To use the fingerprint reader you need to register your fingerprint by swiping your finger several times over the sensor. You are also required to set up an alternative password as a way to bypass the fingerprint access. Once the fingerprint has been recorded it can be used to lock the phone. There is also a FingerAppLock app, and a way to use the fingerprint reader as a kind of scroll-wheel to scroll up and down on web pages. The FingerAppLock lets you protect certain apps and only grants access when unlocked via the fingerprint reader.

Unfortunately the fingerprint reader is actually quite hard to use. Registering the fingerprint took loads of swipes of my finger and the process often reset with an error about too many failed attempts to register the fingerprint. The same is also true of using the reader once a fingerprint has been recorded. It would often take several swipes to unlock the phone. If I couldn’t manage it after several attempts I was forced to use the alternative password. All of this became annoying very quickly, and if I was using this phone as my daily driver I guess I wouldn’t use the fingerprint reader.

Camera

This phone has a 13MP rear facing camera and a 5MP front facing camera. The pictures aren’t bad for a device at this price point. The color reproduction is generally good, however in low-light conditions, the colors can be a bit washed out.

The included camera app offers a few interesting features including HDR and Panorama. In the settings you can change things like the exposure level, the scene, the white balance, face detection and so on. Overall it is a fairly comprehensive app but without any advanced modes or filters.

Here are some sample shots, judge for yourself:

Software

The P3000 runs stock Android 4.4.2 and uses a lightly skinned launcher with its own icons for standard apps like Settings, Camera, Clock and so on. Interestingly, the device is rooted by default and comes with Chainfire’s SuperSU pre-installed.

As well as the section for the fingerprint reader, the Settings also has a section for controlling the notification LED. By default the LED will flash blue for missed calls, red for new messages and green for other notifications.

Price and Wrap up

To sum up, the P3000 is a 4G LTE enabled smartphone, with a 720p HD display and a quad-core CPU. The performance is good for this price point, and the camera is better than average for a budget device. However, don’t expect too much from the fingerprint reader. You can pick up an Elephone P3000 for around $150, which when you consider the overall specification of the device, is a great price.

When autoplay is enabled videos will start playing automatically, you can turn off autoplay by clicking checkbox.

The Bottom Line

PROS

Price

Octa-core processor

5 inch display

Dual SIM

CONS

Less than vibrant display

Battery life

3G only

7.0

ThL has managed to make what is probably the cheapest 5 inch, 720p HD smartphone on the market. For the price there isn’t much to complain about. But if I have to moan about something then it is probably the battery life.

The Chinese smartphone maker ThL has released some interesting phones recently, including the ThL 5000, which featured a 5000mAh battery; the ThL T200, with its 6 inch display; and the ThL L969, the company’s first 4G phone. ThL has now launched the ThL T6 Pro. Not only does this 5 inch, 720p HD device use the same octa-core processor as the ThL 5000, but it costs less than $120.

So what kind of phone can you expect for $120? I got hold of a T6 Pro and I tested it out for a few days, and this is what I discovered.

Spec sheet

Display

5 inch, 1280 x 720

Processor

1.4GHz, octa-core Mediatek MT6592M, Cortex-A7

RAM

1GB

Storage

8GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB

Camera

8 Megapixel Rear Camera, 2MP Front Camera

Battery

1900 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz. 3G 900/2100MHz.

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions

143.9 x 71.6 x 8.2 mm

Colors

White, Black

SIM slots

1x Normal SIM, 1xMicro SIM

Design

The T6 Pro is about the size you would expect for a device with a 5 inch display. It isn’t the world’s thinnest, at 8.6mm, but neither is it thick. The bezels down the sides of the display good, but not ultra-thin. Compared to say a Nexus 5, the T6 Pro is a few millimeters longer, 2 mm wider and about the same thickness. In other words to hit this price point the designers at ThL have made the phone’s dimensions distinctly middle-of-the-road, which is perfectly acceptable. I am used to 5 inch devices, my daily “go to” device is a 5 incher. So for me this means the T6 Pro is easy to handle, has a good grip and actually feels quite light.

On the front is the 720p HD display, with three capacitive buttons on the bottom (menu, home and back). Toward the front top edge is the speaker grill and the front facing camera. Looking around the sides, the power button is on the right, and the volume rocker is on the left. The power button can be easily reached by your index finger when held in your left hand. On the top is the micro USB port and the headphone jack. On the bottom is a small thumbnail space to help prise off the back cover, it also acts as the gap in the outer shell for the microphone. For a little bit of decoration the phone has two metal bands running down each side.

On the back is the slightly protruding camera lens, the LED flash, the “thl” logo and the speak grill. Since the camera protrudes from the back then the phone is prone to rocking when placed on a flat surface. This is most noticeable when trying to type. The back cover is matte plastic with a slight dimple effect. Overall the design is pleasing and the phone is easy to handle.

Display

The 1280 x 720 pixel IPS display on the T6 Pro is good considering the price point of this phone, however there are some negative aspects. The viewing angles are OK, but not excellent, and overall the color reproduction can only be classed as fair. The display can’t be called vivid and when placed side-by-side next to a device with a better display, you can see that the whites are slightly grey and the primary colors lack punch. Also the display supports just two simultaneous touch points and not the more standard five, however that really isn’t a problem at all, except for the most advanced Fruit Ninja players! Having said all that, having a 293ppi display on a budget device is a big plus. Overall the display adds to the user experience, and although there are better 5 inch displays out there, you won’t find one on a phone in this price bracket.

Performance

For a budget device the choice of processor in the T6 Pro is excellent. The octa-core MediaTek MT6592M runs at 1.4 GHz and gives the phone more than sufficient processor power for most tasks. The processor packs 8 x Cortex-A7 cores and while the Cortex-A7 core isn’t as fast as ARM’s Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A15 cores, the Cortex-A7 is more energy efficient.

The T6 Pro’s AnTuTu scores are surprising for this price point. The device hasn’t been designed to take one of the top spots, however it still manages a score of 26696. These octa-core devices are very good for tasks which perform a lot of multitasking, however you will likely see the lower performance of the Cortex-A7 core on tasks that only have a single thread, for example when browsing the web.

For Epic Citadel, the demo app for the Unreal 3D engine, the T6 Pro managed 52.9 frames per second (fps) on the High Performance setting and 52.7 fps on the High Quality setting. These are good results considering that the processor uses the Mali-450 GPU. The Mali-450 is a good choice for budget phones, however it is starting to show its age.

In terms of GPS performance the T6 Pro does surprisingly well. I stepped outside and activated the GPS and within a few seconds the device had a lock. I then disabled the GPS and went inside. After leaving the phone for a few hours I activated the GPS inside the house, and although it took longer, the GPS acquired a lock indoors. It is also worth mentioning that the T6 Pro doesn’t have a built-in compass.

Previous ThL phones have had an issue with the GPS working simultaneously with Bluetooth. The situation had vastly improved by the time ThL released the ThL 5000. The T6 Pro behaves basically the same as the ThL 5000. In other words, there is still some stutter and lag in the Bluetooth output (tested by playing background music to a Bluetooth speaker) when some GPS related apps start. But the interruptions to the Bluetooth output are only temporary and last, at most, only a couple of seconds.

Battery

The battery tests I performed have turned out to be a little inconclusive. The combination of the 5 inch, 720p display and the octa-core processor could leave the 1900 mAh battery struggling to provide a full working day of power. However ThL decided to clock the processor at 1.4 GHz rather than the customary 1.7 GHz. This means that even with a sub 2000 mAh battery, the device should have reasonable battery performance.

I ran my customary set of tests: YouTube streaming, Epic Citadel, and playing an MP4 file from the internal storage. I had an initial problem that the battery didn’t discharge evenly. Tests conducted when the battery was near full yielded significantly different results than when the battery was half used. However after several discharge/charge cycles the results started to even out.

My Epic Citadel test showed that the phone will handle about 3 hours of intensive 3D gaming. Simpler 2D will likely run for much longer. YouTube will work for around four hours on a full charge, while watching an MP4 video stored locally will work for around four and half hours. I did a simple 3G calling test and the phone has a talk time of at least 20 hours.

All tests were performed with the screen on half brightness, with Wi-Fi and sync enabled.

Connectivity

The phone has all the standard connectivity options like Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, 2G GSM and 3G, but it doesn’t have NFC or LTE. There are two SIM card slots, one normal sized and one for micro SIM cards. The device is compatible with two 3G frequencies, 900 and 2100MHz. The latter is the most common 3G frequency and should work in most places around the world, however a lot of carriers also use secondary 3G spectrum ranges. In Asia and South America this is often 850MHz and 1900MHz, for Europe it tends to be 900MHz. The 3G won’t work in the USA, however 2G calls should work fine. You need to check with your carrier to ensure compatibility or check the List of UMTS networks page.

I compared the Wi-Fi signals strengths of the T6 Pro with other devices I have and it performed equally as well. I was able to access the Internet from all around the house and outside without any problems.

However, there were a couple of times when I had to toggle the Wi-Fi off and on again to restore Internet connectivity. This happened mainly during my YouTube battery testing. After about 15 minutes of streaming, access to the Internet would cease. Stopping the Wi-Fi and restarting it again solved the problem. I had a similar problem with the ThL 5000. This could be a local problem at my end, I am not sure.

Camera

The 8 megapixel shooter on this phone is reasonable and certainly good enough for any snaps you want to take when you don’t have a better camera with you. It works best outdoors, but since it has a F2.2 aperture, the indoor results are OK. The back camera can be set to automatically extrapolate up to 13MP, however it isn’t the megapixel count or the aperture size that is the problem. The biggest problem is with the colors. For the most part the colors are bland. Having said that they can be easily tweaked in just about any photo editor.

For those into selfies the front camera is may be a little weak at only 2 megapixels, however it can be set to extrapolate up to 8MP. In terms of video, the rear camera can record at 1092 x 1088, while the front facing camera only records video at 640 x 480.

Overall the camera is OK but not exceptional. The camera app is the fairly standard app with features like HDR, face detection and burst mode etc. If you don’t like the built-in camera you can install Google’s default camera app from the Play Store.

The best thing is to judge for yourself. It is fall now where I live, so there aren’t many flowers out and there are lots of leaves on the ground, but I hope this selection of photos is useful:

Software

The T6 Pro comes with stock Android 4.4.2 with a few minor tweaks like an extra setting under Battery which enables “CPU power saving mode.” According to the description this limits the maximum CPU performance to conserve battery life and lower the device’s temperature. There is also a section in the settings to enable the “Multitasking Window”, a little “always on-top” menu which gives you quick access to a few miniature apps including a notepad and a music player.

The Security section also features an Apps permission setting. When enabled you can control which apps have permission to make calls, send SMS messages, get your location and so on. Once enabled the default permission is for each app to ask before using a restricted service.

The built-in launcher is ‘Launcher 3′ from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and not the Google Now Launcher. You can install the Google Now Launcher from the Play Store if you don’t like the default one. This build of ‘Launcher 3′ also has some ThL custom icons. One minor point is that all the icon backgrounds are squares with curved edges. This means that if you install an app with a transparent background then it gets placed on a colored square.

The device comes with full Google Play support and all of the normal Google apps are available. For those Google apps not pre-installed, a quick trip to the Play Store gets you everything you need. It is worth mentioning that the 8GB of flash is divided into 2GB of internal storage and 4GB of phone storage. The 2GB partition does limit the number of apps you can install, however the storage is expandable and once you insert a memory card you can set the preferred install location to the SD card.

Pricing and conclusion

The ThL brand isn’t that well known outside of China, however in China the name is quite established and the company has over 340 stores across the mainland. The ThL T6 Pro is a great phone for the price and its excels in many areas including its performance. But it also has its weak points, like the lack of LTE and the mediocre display. However when you consider the price these lacks are more than forgivable. The T6 Pro is available for just $117 or 92 Euros, plus shipping and any local import taxes. Our review unit was supplied by Chinavasion which ships worldwide.

Huawei’s Honor series has often punched above its weight for its price, but the handsets have rarely ever left the Chinese market. In an attempt to expand into new regions and pinch even more market share from the big brands, Huawei has launched its new Honor 6 flagship smartphone in Europe.

The Honor 6 is undoubtedly a high-end smartphone in the hardware department but carries the price-tag of a modest mid-ranger. The smartphone is priced at £250 in the UK and €300 in the rest of Europe, putting it in direct competition with the OnePlus One, but without the pesky invite system. Here is a summary of the Honor 6’s hardware:

5” inch, 1920×1080 display, 445 PPI

1.3 GHz octa-core Kirin 920 SoC

3GB RAM

13 MP rear camera, 5 MP front camera

16GB internal storage

MicroSD card slot (64GB support)

3000 mAh batter

Dimensions: 139.30 x 68.80 x 6.50 mm

Weight: 135 g

Kirin is Huawei’s own line-up of SoCs. The 920 is built from four Cortex-A15 and four Cortex-A7 CPU cores and a Mali-T628 GPU, just like Samsung’s Exynos 5 line-up. This is the same makeup as the Ascend Mate 7’s processor, albeit with a slightly lower clock speed. The SoC is also capable of Cat 6 LTE speeds of 300Mbps when making use of carrier aggregation, so long as your network supports this.

That’s a lot of phone for £250/€300 and the Honor 6 is substantially cheaper than the likes of the Galaxy S5, HTC One (M8), LG G3, or Xperia Z3.

Huawei may be synonymous with previous Honor handsets, but the company is making a calculated effort to keep the Huawei brand name out of the picture this time around. By presenting Honor as its own company, Huawei perhaps hopes to dodge accusations that the phone comes from a questionable Chinese brand.

Huawei is also planning to sell a flipcover case, protective case, and a set of headphones as accessories to the Honor 6, but these are still listed as “coming soon”. If this handset has piqued your interested, you can order yours from a local retailer through the official Honor website.

The Bottom Line

The MANN ZUG 3+ is waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof. It offers excellent battery life, but the low resolution display and below average camera could be a problem for some.

No matter how hard you try, no matter how careful you are, the chances are that you are going to drop your smartphone at some point. Now imagine that you work outdoors, or on a building site, or you love hiking in mountains. Imagine what would happen if you dropped your smartphone then!

Water resistance is a feature that is starting to appear on some smartphones, but what if you demand more from your phone, what if you need a smartphone that can withstand more pain! I recently received a MANN ZUG 3+, a rugged smartphone with an IP68 rating. The ZUG 3+ is certainly a beast, not in terms of its internals, but its external rugged design. Although I didn’t try, the device feels like you could happily drop it from a first floor window and it would survive!

Specification

Beneath the ruggedized exterior of the ZUG 3+ you get a quad-core processor from Qualcomm, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. Here is a look at the rest of the specs:

Display

4.0 inch IPS 800x480

Processor

1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8212 Quad Core

GPU

Adreno 305

RAM

1GB

Storage

4GB, microSD card slot, up to 32GB

Camera

5 Megapixel Rear Camera & 0.3 Megapixel Front-Facing Camera

Battery

2930 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. 3G WCDMA: 900/2100MHz

Software

Android 4.3 with Google Play

Dimensions

140x75x18mmn255 grams

Colors

Black, Orange, Green

SIM slots

1x WCDM/GSM, 1x GSM

Design

When you look at the ZUG 3+, you don’t think about its elegance, or its style, you just see the strong rubber exterior, and if you are like me, you start to wonder, “just how much abuse can this thing take!” The rest of the phone’s design, like its processor package or the display, are strictly secondary here. This beast is probably the biggest phone, in terms of thickness and weight, that I have seen since the 1990s! The phone shamelessly shows off its hardened exterior and its heavy duty casing. There are screws, rivets and copious amounts of rubber and thick black plastic.

Taking a guided tour around the phone, there are capacitive keys just below the display and above the prominent MANN logo. Above the display is the front facing camera and ear piece. On the right-hand side is the volume control, which is used through a rubber skin for water proofing. At the bottom is the micro USB port which is protected by a heavy-duty rubber cap. The headphone jack, which is on the top, is also protected by a similar cap. There was also a spare/replacement cap for both of these in the box. Next to the headphone jack is the power button, made from a bright red plastic.

The battery cover on the back is secured in place using two screws which allows the device to remain water tight. Under the cover you will find the battery, two SIM slots and the micro SD card slot. All are easily accessible once you take the battery cover off with the supplied mini-screwdriver.

Rugged

The MANN ZUG 3+ sports IP68 water resistance. IP68 means complete protection against dust and water resistance beyond 1m. According to the specifications it can handle 30 minutes of immersion in 2 meters of water.

As you can see from the photos below I played fairly rough with the ZUG 3+ and the device took it all without any problems. All the water and mud in these shots are real, but no phones were hurt during the making of this review!

Performance

The MANN ZUG 3+ uses a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8212 processor with a Adreno 305 GPU. It scores 17,030 on AnTuTu. Putting that into some context, it means that AnTuTu ranks this handset as just a little slower than a Samsung Galaxy S3. More than sufficient for a phone that you would buy primarily for its durable exterior.

A quick test using Epic Citadel showed that the MANN ZUG 3+ can manage an average of 48.1 frames per second at 800×480 in high performance mode, 47.9 in high quality mode, and a very respectable 43.1 in ultra high quality mode. Considering the processor package, these are solid numbers, but the lower resolution screen does certainly help the GPU perform better.

As for the Wi-Fi and GPS performance. The Wi-Fi worked very well and I had no trouble getting a signal even in the partially dead spots around my house. The GPS works very well and was even able to get a lock while I was inside, something that many other phones I have tested can’t do.

Battery

The battery in the MANN ZUG 3+ is a 2930mAh unit, which is a monster considering the Cortex-A7 based processor and the 800×480 display. I ran a few battery tests and the results were excellent. For 3D gaming I used Epic Citadel to discover that the ZUG 3+ can handle about 8 hours of intensive 3D graphics on one charge. I could hardly believe the result, so I ran the test a second time just to confirm it! As for YouTube and video watching, you can watch locally stored MP4 videos for over 12 hours on one charge, while YouTube streaming over Wi-Fi lasts for at least 10 hours.

The combination of low resolution screen, a Cortex-A7 based processor and a huge 2930mAh battery means that this device is guaranteed to give you excellent battery life. Well done MANN.

Camera

The device has a 5MP camera, which is lower than I would like, but the phone has been designed primarily for its ruggedness and not for top-end performance. There seems to be a problem with the auto-focus, especially on shots of landscapes. It is as if the device doesn’t have a very good depth of field. Having said that it doesn’t take bad pictures, if you are prepared to compensate for its weaknesses. Here are a few shots from the camera, one of them was taken from within a bowl of water. It didn’t really work, but I thought I would leave it here for completeness:

Connectivity

The MANN ZUG 3+ isn’t designed to be a flagship phone, however it does have all the connectivity options you would expect from a 3G device. There is Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, 2G GSM and 3G. The device is dual SIM and supports 3G on 900 and 2100MHz. This means that the 3G won’t work in the USA, however standard GSM calls should work. 2100 Mhz is the most common 3G frequency and should work in most places around the world, however a lot of carriers also use a secondary 3G frequency range. In Asia and South America this is often 850MHz, but in Europe it tends to be 900MHz. This means that this device offers European users better connectivity than many other Chinese devices which often only support 850/2100 rather than 900/2100.

You need to check with your carrier to ensure compatibility, or if you trust Wikipedia then this UMTS networks page could have the information you need.

Software

The phone runs Android 4.3 with a few minor tweaks. The launcher looks fairly standard as does the device settings. The phone only goes with 4GB, of which only 2.5GB is usable. However you can use a micro SD card and there are a couple of options which basically tell the system to use the SD card for installing apps and as the default data location for photos, screenshots and videos. There is also an extra ‘Auto power on/off’ option in the settings.

Since Google Play is pre-installed there is full access to all of Google’s apps including Gmail, YouTube and Google Keyboard etc.

Pricing and conclusion

If you find yourself outdoors frequently, in environments that aren’t friendly towards smartphones, then the MANN ZUG 3+ could be the perfect phone for you. The specifications aren’t high, but the device has more than enough processing power for every day usage and for the casual gamer. However its real charm is its rugged design. Water, mud, sand, I tried them all and basically the phone survived its mistreatment. As for the price, the MANN ZUG 3+ is available for just $190 from Tabletland. As an exclusive offer for Android Authority readers you can get a further $20 off with the following coupon code: O8D3N.

At A Glance

PROS

4G

Sleek design

Price

Micro SD card slot (up to 64GB)

CONS

Sub 720p display

Limited internal storage

7.5

The ZP320 is one of the latest releases by the Chinese smartphone maker Zopo. It features a quad-core MediaTek processor and a 5 inch display. Running Android 4.4, this 4G smartphone is worth checking out.

Zopo has been making Android smartphones for several years, but this is the first time I have had a chance to review one. Earlier this year MediaTek released a new multimode LTE modem chipset – the MT6290. As a result, Chinese OEMs, like Zopo, have started to ship their new generation of 4G-LTE phones. I received a ZP320 a few days ago and I have been testing it to see what Zopo can bring to the table.

Spec sheet

Display

5 inch, IPS, 960 x 540

Processor

1.3GHz, quad-core Mediatek MT6582, Cortex-A7

RAM

1GB

Storage

8GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

8 Megapixel Rear Camera, 2 Megapixel Front Camera

Battery

2300 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz. 3G 900/2100MHz. 4G LTE 800/1800/2600MHz.

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions

142 x 71 x 9.8 mm.

Colors

White, Black

SIM slots

1x micro SIM

Design

For a five inch device the Zopo ZP320 looks sleek, even thin. The numbers tell me that the device is the same size and thickness as many other five inch devices, but yet to my eyes it just looked thinner and narrower. After studying it closely I have come to the conclusion that the bezels are a fraction thinner than I was expecting and the top and bottom areas are not as wide as on other phones. At the top the ear piece grill and camera are almost touching the edge of the phone. The result is that the phone looks more compact than it really is. We are only talking about fractions of a millimeter but it does the trick. The designers at Zopo should be congratulated.

The corners of the ZP320 are distinctly rounded in three directions. On the front side the drop off from the corner is flat but not sharp. Running around the whole phone is a think silver band which marks the edge of the phone and the start of the back cover.

On the very top edge of the device is the micro USB port (used for charging and data transfer) and the headphone jack. On the bottom edge the smooth plastic is interrupted only temporarily for the small microphone hole. All the controls are on the right, first comes the volume keys, and below them the power button. If you hold the phone in your left hand it is very easy to reach the buttons with your fingers.

The back covered has a small dimple effect in plastic, which gives it a slight matte appearance, but it also means the device is easy to grip and doesn’t feel slippery. On the back is the 8MP camera along with an LED flash. The camera lens has a silver ring around it which ever so slightly protrudes from the back of the device. This means it doesn’t lay perfectly flat on a table, however the small dots on either side of the speaker grill are just as much to blame. Of course they are there to ensure that the speaker isn’t muffled when placed down. On the back there is also a second microphone, something that is often missing on lower end phones. The second mic should give better sound when recording video.

The IPS display on the ZP320 is bright and vibrant, with good viewing angles, however its sub 720p resolution is a bit of a disappointment. The bottom bezel houses the three capacitive keys which light up when pressed.

Performance

At the heart of the ZP320 is a MediaTek MTK6582 . It is a quad-core Cortex-A7 based processor that is coupled with an ARM Mali-400 MP GPU. The device isn’t going to win any gold medals for performance, however the MediaTek processor easily ensures that the overall experience is fluid and responsive.

The ZP320 AnTuTu scores are respectable considering the low-end processor and the price point. Antutu v5.0 gives the device a score of 18795 which means the device is comparable to the Nexus 4 and the Moto G. For Epic Citadel, the demo app for the Unreal 3D engine, the ZP320 managed 53.8 frames per second (fps) on the High Performance setting, and 53.6 fps in the High Quality mode.

The GPS performance of the ZP320 is excellent. I tested the device inside my house and it was able to get a lock using the signals from a dozen satellites. Getting a lock while indoors is quite unusual for a low- to mid- range phone. Very impressive.

Battery

The ZP320 has a good sized battery at 2300 mAh. After some testing I found that the battery performance was on-par with my expectations, maybe even better. When running Epic Citadel, in its Guided Tour mode, the device lasts just under 5.5 hours before it runs out of juice. For YouTube streaming (over Wi-Fi) the device can handle around 10 hours on one charge. Watching an MP4 movie from the internal storage yields around 10.5 hours of viewing pleasure. All the tests were carried out with the screen on half brightness, syncing enabled and Wi-Fi on.

Connectivity

The Zopo ZP320 is a single SIM device and supports 3G on 900/2100MHz and 4G on 800/1800/2600MHz. The different 4G providers around the world use pre-defined frequency bands. My carrier uses 1800MHz, so the ZP320 worked with 4G without any problems. The speed tests I performed confirmed much higher throughput than those I get on 3G. The bands listed are popular ones used in many parts of Africa, some but not all parts of Central and South America and large parts of Asia. In Europe, basically every carrier uses one of the bands supported by this device. Unfortunately none of the North American carriers use these frequencies. Before buying the phone you should check with your carrier to ensure compatibility, or if you trust Wikipedia then it has a global list of LTE networks.

This device is compatible with two 3G frequencies, 900 and 2100MHz. The latter is the most common 3G frequency and should work in most places around the world, however a lot of carriers also use secondary 3G spectrum ranges. In Asia and South America this is often 850MHz and 1900MHz, for Europe it tends to be 900MHz. The 3G won’t work in the USA, however 2G calls should work fine. You need to check with your carrier to ensure compatibility or check the List of UMTS networks page.

I compared the Wi-Fi signals strengths of the ZP320 with other devices I have and it performed equally as well. I was able to access the Internet from all around the house and outside without any problems.

Camera

The 8MP camera on the ZP320 is distinctly average. The auto-focus can have trouble with close-up shots and there is a danger of bleaching in strong sunlight. However with care, you can still take reasonable pictures. The built-in camera app has all the normal features and functions like face detection, HDR and panorama mode. Because the phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat you can also use Google’s camera app if you don’t like the built-in one. The best thing to do is to look at the pictures below and decide for yourself.

Software

The ZP320 comes with stock Android 4.4.2 with a slightly modified launcher and a few other minor tweaks. The settings page uses color icons (rather than the standard monochrome ones) and there are a few special functions like HotKnot, a NFC alternative; some simple gesture sensing, which don’t really work; and smart wake functions, which allow you to draw on the screen when the device is asleep to wake it directly into certain apps like the camera.

The ZP320 comes with full Google Play support and all of the normal Google apps are available. For those Google apps not pre-installed, a quick trip to the Play Store gets you everything you need.

The 8GB of internal storage will be limiting for many users. Only 6.06GB of the 8GB is usable. 0.88GB is set aside for apps (marked as internal storage) and 5.18GB is for data (marked as phone storage). There is a micro SD card slot which accepts cards up to 64GB and the phone can be set to use the SD card as the default write location. However even with an SD card installed, the internal storage is still used for apps. There is the option to move apps to the phone storage, however there doesn’t seem to be away to get the device to move apps to the SD card.

Pricing and conclusion

If you are looking for a cheap way to get a 4G phone then the Zopo ZP320 is worth considering. It has a sleek design and there is the option for a big SD card, however the way the flash storage is split could be a problem.

At A Glance

With a price print under $140 the ThL L969 brings 4G connectivity to the low-end smartphone market.The device has very good battery life and it is certainly a cheap way to get 4G.

Until now smaller Chinese OEMs have concentrated on shipping 3G smartphones and there has been a dearth of 4G LTE phones. Thankfully that is now changing and companies like ZTE, Zopo and ThL are starting to ship low- and mid-range devices with built-in 4G LTE. A ThL L969 arrived on my desk a few days ago and I have been testing it to see how a sub $140 4G device performs.

The L969 is primarily about its support for 4G and the rest is about price. At one fifth of the price of a flagship device from Samsung, Sony or LG, the ThL L969 intentionally offers a low- to mid-range feature set. So there is no HD display, no NFC and a low-end camera. But what you do get is a reasonable processor package, a great battery, 3G and 4G connectivity, and room for expansion with an SD card slot that supports up to 64GB.

Spec sheet

Display

5 inch, IPS, 854 x 480 (WVGA)

Processor

1.3GHz, quad-core Mediatek MT6582, Cortex-A7

RAM

1GB

Storage

8GB, microSD card slot, up to 64GB

Camera

5 Megapixel Rear Camera, VGA Front Camera

Battery

2700 mAh

Connectivity

GPS, microUSB 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth

Networks

GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz. 3G 850/1900/2100MHz. 4G LTE 1800/2600MHz.

Software

Android 4.4 with Google Play

Dimensions

145 x 72 x 9 mm. 164 grams

Colors

White, Black

SIM slots

1x Normal SIM

Design

The L969 is roughly the same size as other 5 inch devices from ThL (e.g. the ThL 5000, and the ThL W200s). It is easy to hold and probably on the limit of what you could comfortable get in your pocket. Available in black or white, the latter has a metal colored band around the edge, while the darker version keeps the band the same color as the surrounding plastic. The back cover uses a dimpled plastic that provides extra grip, while not attracting fingerprints.

Around the edges are the various buttons and ports. On the very top edge is the micro USB port (used for charging and data transfer) along with the headphone jack. All the controls are on the right, first comes the volume rocker and below that the power button. This means that if you hold the phone in your left hand it is very easy to reach the buttons with your fingers.

On the back of the phone is the camera housing and an LED flash. The camera protrudes slightly from the back of the phone which means that it can wobble a little if you are trying to type with it on a flat surface.

The specs say that the device is 9mm thick, but according to my crude measurements it is more like 10mm, even 11mm if you include the protruding camera. Having said that, the device doesn’t feel thick or bulky in the hand or to look at.

The display on the L969 is mediocre at best, mainly due to its low resolution, but it is still very usable. It also has good viewing angles since the screen uses IPS. The display is flanked by reasonably sized bezels, at about 4mm each. While above the display is the space for the earpiece, camera and proximity detectors; and below the L969 sports three capacitive buttons.

Performance

The L969 isn’t a processing powerhouse, however the processor does an admirable job of providing a fluid and responsive experience. The quad-core Cortex-A7 based processor is coupled with an ARM Mali-400 GPU, which could be seen as the very minimum for a smartphone, and due to the smaller screen resolution the GPU is more than sufficient.

The L969 AnTuTu scores are respectable considering the processor and the price point. Antutu v5.0 gives the device a score of 18991 which means the device is comparable to the Nexus 4 and the Moto G. For Epic Citadel, the demo app for the Unreal 3D engine, the L969 managed 58.7 frames per second (fps) on the High Performance setting.

In terms of GPS performance the L969 is good. I stepped outside, activated the GPS and although the initial lock takes around a minute, subsequent locks are quicker. I took the device for a short trip in my car and it managed to maintain a GPS lock at all times, including in built up areas.

One of the problems with some previous ThL phones which I have reviewed was that the GPS and Bluetooth didn’t get along with each other. Separately they worked fine, but as soon as an app used the location services the Bluetooth output began to stutter and lag. Thankfully the L969 doesn’t suffer from this problem at all.

However it does have a different problem. If you are streaming music to a Bluetooth speaker everything works fine, including the Wi-Fi. However the moment you start using the GPS subsystem (via say Google Maps) the Wi-Fi stops working. This only happens if you are using a Bluetooth device. As soon as you stop streaming music to the Bluetooth device the Wi-Fi starts working again. You can use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi together, you can use the GPS and the Bluetooth together, but you can’t use Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi together, go figure!

I tried the same test with Bluetooth, GPS and 4G (with Wi-Fi off) and everything worked fine. This means the practical limitations of this weird bug are probably quite limited. In other words, using a Bluetooth device while using Google Maps (with a 4G data connection) in your car should work fine.

Battery

Probably the strongest individual component in the ThL L969 is its battery. At 2700mAh, the battery is performs very well. When running Epic Citadel, in its Guided Tour mode, the device lasts just under 4.5 hours before it runs out of juice. For YouTube streaming (over Wi-Fi) the device does a even better and can handle almost 10 hours on one charge. Watching an MP4 movie from the internal storage yields around 16 hours of viewing pleasure. All the tests were carried out with the screen on half brightness, syncing enabled and Wi-Fi on.

Connectivity

The ThL L969 is a single SIM device and supports 3G on 850/1900/2100MHz and 4G on 1800/2600MHz. Each 4G provider around the world uses one of the pre-defined frequency bands. In my country my carrier uses 1800MHz, so the L969 worked with 4G without any problems. The speed tests I performed confirmed much higher throughput than those I get on 3G. 1800 and 2600MHz are very popular ranges used in many parts of Africa, some but not all parts of Central and South America and large parts of Asia. In Europe you are pretty much guaranteed to find at least one carrier that offers 4G-LTE on one of those two frequencies. Unfortunately none of the North American carriers use these frequencies. Before buying the phone you should check with your carrier to ensure compatibility, or if you trust Wikipedia then it has a global list of LTE networks.

This device is compatible with three 3G frequencies. 2100MHz is the most common 3G frequency and should work in most places around the world, however a lot of carriers also use secondary 3G spectrum ranges. In Asia and South America this is often 850MHz and 1900MHz, but in Europe it tends to be 900MHz. In the USA a couple of providers use 850MHz and 1900MHz, however most use 1700MHz in combination with a second band. I have not tested this device in the USA, so I can’t confirm if it will work with any particular carrier. However 2G calls should work fine. You need to check with your carrier to ensure compatibility or check the List of UMTS networks page.

I compared the Wi-Fi signals strengths of the L969 with other devices I have and it performed equally as well. I was able to access the Internet from all around the house and outside without any problems.

Camera

If the battery was the strongest individual component in the L969 then the camera is probably the weakest. That isn’t to say that the camera is bad, but it is certainly at the low-end of what consumers expect from a smartphone. At 5MP the pictures won’t be winning any prizes, however for the occasional quick shot when you don’t have another camera, it will suffice. Because the phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat I was able to use Google’s camera app. The best thing to do is to look at the pictures below and decide for yourself.

Software

The L969 comes with stock Android 4.4.2 with a few minor tweaks: there is an additional control in the Battery section of the Settings called “Standby intelligent power saver”, and there is also a section in the settings to enable the “Multitasking Window”, a little “always on-top” menu which gives you quick access to a few miniature apps including a notepad and a music player.

The Security section also features an Apps permission setting. When enabled you can control which apps have permission to make calls, send SMS message, get your location and so on. Once enabled the default permission is for each app to ask before using a restricted service.

The built-in launcher is ‘Launcher 3′ from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and not the Google Experience Launcher from devices like the Nexus 5. What that basically means is that you can’t swipe left to launch Google Now. This build of ‘Launcher 3′ also has some ThL custom icons. One minor point is that all the icon backgrounds are squares with curved edges. This means that if you install an app with a transparent background then it gets placed on a colored square. Look at the Google camera and GPS Test icons in the screenshot below.

The device comes with full Google Play support and all of the normal Google apps are available. For those Google apps not pre-installed, a quick trip to the Play Store gets you everything you need. There were a few bloatware apps that came pre-installed including the Baidu Browser and a couple of third party app stores. However these were easy enough to uninstall.

The 8GB of internal storage is probably a bit limiting and seems to be divided up in a less than optimal way. There is 2GB of internal storage (used mainly for apps and 4.5GB of phone storage (for your media). However you can use an SD card (up to 64GB) and set the memory card to be the default write location for the device.

Pricing and conclusion

If you are looking for a cheap way to get a 4G phone then it is worth considering the ThL L969. To keep the prices down the display and the camera aren’t amazing, however the battery is great and the 4G worked out-of-the-box. Considering the price point its advantages easily outweigh its disadvantages.